St David’s Day: Welsh chef Tomos Parry shares three recipes to celebrate with

Wales’ food history and cooking is based on the rural nature of the country and the diets of the working people, from farmers to fishermen, the coal miners to people working on the land.

The history of food in Wales wasn’t so much based around chefs and restaurants, but around the produce served in the small town cafés and pubs for the locals. You could pick up cockles and seaweed — laverbread — in Pembrokeshire, or Snowdonia lamb, game, wild mushrooms and lobsters from Anglesey. But this has changed significantly over the past two decades with some brilliant restaurants opening, though they still champion local Welsh produce. Many look not just to champion the produce, but the traditional dishes do. I feel sure the Welsh restaurant scene has a hugely positive future.

Very similar to the way Catalan cuisine is referred to as "Mar y montana" — food of the sea and hillside — I believe Welsh cooking reflects its terroir, with dishes combining elements from both the sea and the mountains. Dishes consist of vegetables from the gardens, fish from the lakes and sea, and meat dishes based on using the whole animals. Much of Welsh culinary history is also based on dishes cooked with rural techniques; food cooked in one pot or in griddles over fire, with one the most famous and traditional dishes I grew up with being cawl. It is a nourishing dish for the soul, a broth made of various vegetables and the lesser used cuts of mutton cooked slowly together. The abundant seas have long provided excellent seafood, with cockles, lobsters, oysters and seaweeds being a significant part of Welsh culinary history.

Only in Wales, and some parts of Scotland and Ireland, is an edible seaweed known as laver gathered and processed commercially. Available already cooked and prepared in numerous markets throughout Wales, bara lawr or laverbread is usually eaten sprinkled with oatmeal, then warmed in hot bacon fat and served with bacon for breakfast or supper.

It is an indicator of how the Welsh eating habits have formed; from the water and earth around us. Here are three recipes that reflect such an approach to eating.

Asparagus with wild garlic and fresh cheese

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This dish reminds me of growing up in rural Wales, where wild garlic season would mark the early start of St David’s Day and spring; often you see daffodils growing near patches of wild garlic. This is a simple dish where two ingredients in peak season are combined, and it must be cooked quickly to retain its vibrancy. The warm asparagus combined with the aroma of wild garlic, brown butter works very nicely with the creamy fresh cheese.

If you’re without asparagus, use whole leeks cooked directly in coals; this is what we turn to when asparagus isn’t in season. The char from any vegetables with cream is a great combination.

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• A bunch green asparagus (about eight or nine pieces)
• 50g wild garlic
• 250g burrata
• Sprigs of fresh mint and oregano
• A lemon
• Breadcrumbs
• 250g butter

Method

1. Lie wild garlic leaves flat, scattering with mint and oregano.
2. Top with a bundle of pre-blanched asparagus stems and wrap tight in the leaves, binding with wild garlic brown butter.
3. Cook in a very hot oven (240°C) for 7 minutes, or until the roll has blistered.
4. To serve, coat in the remaining brown butter and a squeeze of lemon.
5. Split open the burrata, season with salt, pepper and olive oil. Scatter with homemade breadcrumbs for texture.

Grilled leeks with Welsh cheese fonduta

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At Brat, we always have a dish based around grilled or baked leeks on the menu. I love the sweet flavour of slow-cooked leek that’s been left to sit in the smoky embers of a fire, as above. You can replicate this in a number of ways at home, and here’s how to do it in a domestic oven. The fonduta uses three types of Welsh cheese to create a rich sauce to go with grilled leeks after they’ve been doused in vinegar, and everything is finished off with a scattering of smoky, nutty almonds.

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

• 2 medium leeks, trimmed but left whole
• 300ml white wine
• A garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
• 300g Celtic Promise (similar to emmental), grated
• 450g Teifi (similar to gruyere), grated
• 120g Hafod cheddar, grated
• Salt, pepper
• Nutmeg
• 20ml sherry vinegar
• 40g smoked almonds
• 1 tsp thyme leaves, to finish

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C. Put the leeks under a very hot grill, turning often, for about 20 minutes, until charred all over.
2. Meanwhile, make the fonduta. Gently heat the wine and garlic in a pan on a low heat until simmering, then stir in the Celtic Promise bit by bit, whisking it in until melted. Repeat first with the Teifi and then the Hafod cheddar.
3. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste, and keep warm.
4. Peel back the blackened layers of the leeks to reveal the soft, cooked insides, then sprinkle on the vinegar and some salt.
5. Transfer to a platter, spoon over the fonduta, grate on a generous amount of the roast smoked almonds, scatter with thyme leaves and serve.

Clams with fennel, laverbread and vermouth

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This dish is inspired by the classic dish of South Wales — cockles and laverbread. This recipe is based on the Brat dish where we grill the clams then finish in a pan with similar sauce. The base of the sauce is the natural juices from the clams combined with cream and herbal flavour of the vermouth with the aniseed fennel and earthy Welsh laverbread seaweed.

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

• 2kg clams (or cockles) washed
• 150ml White Vermouth
• 150ml cream
• A white onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• A fennel bulb, trimmed and finely sliced; keep the fronds
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp laverbread seaweed
• 25g of chopped flat leaf parsley
• Salt, pepper
• A lemon
• Olive oil

Method

1. Place a large, heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Add a dash of olive oil and slowly cook the onion, garlic and sliced fennel for 3-4 minutes until soft.
2. Turn up to a high heat.
3. Add the clams, thyme, bay leaves and vermouth.
4. Cover with a lid and cook, stirring occasionally, until the clams open, which should take 5-6 minutes.
5. Stir gently and season with salt, pepper, fennel tops and lemon juice and serve in bowls with bread or potatoes.

Tomos Parry is the head chef and co-owner of the Brat restaurants. He can be found at @tomos_pp